HIND INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Author for Corresponding - SUBHA GANGULY Department of Veterinary Microbiology, Arawali Veterinary College, Rajasthan University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, SIKAR (RAJASTHAN) INDIA Email: ganguly38@gmail.com See end of the article for Coopted authors’ Effect of different cooking procedures on microbiological quality of chevon meat balls RICHA RAI, DEBASHIS BHATTACHARYYA, PRAVEEN KUMAR PRAVEEN, SUBHA GANGULY, NIRUPAMA DALAI AND SHASHANK SHEKHAR ABSTRACT...... In this research, the effects of different cooking processes (pan fried and microwave cooking) on microbiological quality of the raw and cooked chevon meatballs were studied. Microbial flora of the raw meatballs was as follows: total plate count, 5.98±0.235 (log cfu/g); yeast and mould, 4.80±0.328 (log cfu/g); coliforms, 3.05±0.433 (log cfu/g). Highly significant (P<0.01) difference was noticed in microbiological quality of chevon meat balls. The cooking processes decreased the microbial flora approximately 2–3 log cycles, and pan frying was the effective cooking process for reducing microbial numbers compared to the microwave oven. The temperature of the Pan fried (150-160°C for 5-7 min) was higher than the To conclude, it was advised to use slightly higher temperatures than used in the microwave oven cooking procedures to increase microbial quality of the meat balls studied in this research. KEY WORDS...... Pan fried, Microwave oven, Microbiological quality HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE - Rai, Richa, Bhattacharyya, Debashis, Praveen, Kumar Praveen, Ganguly, Subha, Dalai, Nirupama and Shekhar, Shashank(2016). Effect of different cooking procedures on microbiological quality of chevon meat balls. Asian J. Animal Sci., 11(1): 30-32 (DOI : 10.15740/ HAS/TAJAS/11.1/30-32). ARTICLE CHRONICLE - Received : 01.01.2016; Revised : 22.04.2016; Accepted : 15.05.2016 RESEARCH ARTICLE......... The THE ASIAN JOURNAL OF ANIMAL SCIENCE Volume 11 | Issue 1 | June, 2016 | 30-32 AJAS DOI : 10.15740/HAS/TAJAS/11.1/30-32 Visit us | www.researchjournal.co.in  e ISSN–0976–8963 INTRODUCTION.................................................. Meat is an important livestock product. India possesses 125.73 million goats and produced 5, 44,000 Ton of chevon in 2008 (FAOSTAT, 2009). Chevon (goat meat) is most popular meat of ruminant species and is accepted by all communities in India. Cooking method is one of the major factors which determine meat palatability. Nearly all foods may be contaminated by micro-organisms to a certain extent. Cooking of meat is essential to achieve a palatable and safe product Tornberg (2005). In general, heat (boiling, grilling and frying) is applied to meat in different ways to improve its hygienic quality by inactivation of pathogenic microorganisms. (Bayhan et al., 1990) reported that microbiological quality of the raw ground meat was poor, and the heating process was not enough to ensure the safe eating quality. The microbial quality is better during oven cooking than microwave cooking of chevon patties (Raj et al., 2005). Heddleson and Doores (1994) stated that the microwave cooking with ovens of lower wattage (e.g. 450 W) was less effective in destroying bacteria compared to cooking with 1/16 (6)